<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>The Beginning, The Start and the Now by HelloIAmParker</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22747693">The Beginning, The Start and the Now</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/HelloIAmParker/pseuds/HelloIAmParker'>HelloIAmParker</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Kingfisher and His Little Monster [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alcohol, Domesticity, Drugs, Healing, M/M, No graphic abuse mentioned, Phil Coulson is a superhero, Phil and Tony are amazing and ill defend them til i die, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, also he has a symbiote which is...not mentioned a lot, past childhood sexual abuse (vaguely mentioned), problematic relationships (With ofc), the original tony passes away but its with his family, they deffo deserved it don't worry, this is the background primer for t his whole universe, tony has SO MUCH ptsd, tony is a universe hopper, tony is married and has a daughter and then is divorced and married again, tony murders some bad people</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 09:48:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,193</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22747693</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/HelloIAmParker/pseuds/HelloIAmParker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>But the story is like this now, even after everything: Tony Stark meets Phil Coulson, Kingfisher meets his Little Monster and they see each other as they truly are, and they love so fiercly that Tony is so astounded. He thinks, now, curled up on a couch in warm sunlight with a dog on his lap, and a tablet in hand, and a husband behind him who's reading, that he wouldn't change a single second, because it led to this.</p>
<p>( Tony fucks up, gets married, has a kid, gets divorced, and meets the love of his life, in that order )</p>
<p>(Aka, the beginning of Little Monster. )</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Phil Coulson/Tony Stark, Tony Stark/OFC</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Kingfisher and His Little Monster [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/51844</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>45</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Beginning, The Start and the Now</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>
  <span class="small"> As always, Phil belongs to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/users/ringshadow">Ringshadow</a>. Go, follow, read everything they write.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="small">This story glosses over some stuff and explains others. My Tony started as a roleplay character that began in 2012, and his story has grown and evolved in that time. This is my attempt to clean up some of his story that doesnt fit anymore and get some stuff down as official. If something doesnt make sense thats probably because i'm an idiot. Feel free to ask for clarifications in the comments or something to be expanded upon, ill do what i can.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="small">Main Pairing is Phil Coulson/Tony Stark but there is Tony/OFC in this story and some vague Tony/OMC/OFC in this story, because they are important to his backstory. YMMV, you know what you can handle. </span>
</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tony meets 'Toni with an I' in a drug den, high on fifteen things, drunk by five more, and she not far behind.</p>
<p>The story shouldn't start there, but Tony thinks its where things went sideways, so its important to lay that out, right from the beginning. </p>
<p>The story begins when Anthony Gabriel Stark falls from a portal, from an alternate reality, into the bedroom of a dying man, whose surrounded by his friends.</p>
<p>Theres a lot of yelling and screaming and finally Anthony Edward Stark, who is dying in a bed, tells them all to knock it off, that this solves all their problems. Even if its obvious that the newly arrived Anthony is....not well. The man has the same bearing that Tony has seen in war victims, not to mention the man is in full on black fatigues, gun strapped to his back. Oh, and his eyes are blue, which might be the biggest mindfuck Tonys ever seen.</p>
<p>The next hour is a fuckin mindtrip. </p>
<p>Anthony explains he's come from a world where Loki ("Who the fuck is Loki?" Tony says, and Anthony shivers. "You'll find out." He said ominously. ) ruled. With an iron fist and a magic stick and Anthony has been under mind control for at least twenty years, that he's aware of.</p>
<p>( "What happened?" Rhodey can't help but ask, and Anthonys face goes very blank. "He killed my son in front of me. Made me kill my husband. Didn't really bother much trying to fight." He said honestly. He doesn't tell them yet about his other problem, the whispering blackness that he is infested with. He and the Voices get along well enough as long as he feeds them.)</p>
<p>They try to establish anything they can. What were you doing the last twenty years? Fighting. Fighting what? Anything Loki told him to fight. What about Anthonys arc reactor? He got it when he was seventeen, after a bad trip to afghanistan. Now Its powered by magic, there's no more degredation. ("Magic doesn't exist though-" "Tony i just fell into your bedroom i promise it exists.")</p>
<p>Tony is dying, far enough along he can't get up anymore. Anthony can't even help, this magic doesn't exist in their world yet, Loki hasn't brought the tessaract here. Finally, Anthony says he can make this go quicker, if Tony is suffering, and Tony says no thank you.</p>
<p>The next day, in privacy, Tony asks him to do that just that. Something quiet, something gentle, no pain. Anthony slips something colorless and plain into Tonys IV, and tells him he's got a few hours. Tony dies with his family around him, Anthony outside his bedroom door, keeping guard for a dead man.</p>
<p>When its done, they come out, obviously broken but talk to Anthony. No one else knows Tony was sick, it came on quickly, and they couldn't fix it. They need someone to be Tony, because there can't <em>not</em> be a Tony.</p>
<p>Anthony has nowhere to go, no place to exist. So he says yes.</p>
<p>Its awful.</p>
<p>He goes from mind control, a very regimented and controlled existence, into the shoes of a man who came back from Afghanistan half crazy and has the life of a 'Genius Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist'. So he tries to keep up the charade. He lets Pepper and Rhodey and Happy clothe him and try to debrief him and explain about things. Crash course on Tonys life. Obadiah doesn't like this Anthony, and Anthony is...heart broken.</p>
<p>Anthony explains to Pepper and Rhodey, quiet and curled up in their laps, about his childhood. Anthony grew up with no mother, a father with wandering hands and an Obadiah that came across that very action happening in the bathtub. An Obadiah who had made Howard disappear and then stepped in as Tonys family. Obadiah had been his father until the world had been taken over. He <em>loves</em> Obadiah.</p>
<p>But this Obadiah is not his Obadiah and Tony figures out almost immediately what happened. Unlike the others, he sees what Obadiah is, a snake in the grass, sneers hidden behind kind words, because he knows what Obadiah looks like when he genuinely kind.</p>
<p>The first kill the others ever come across with Tony, is Obadiah, who has been....very messily killed. Tony explains, promises he has evidence, and the others look between themselves. They clean Tony up, and put him in the bedroom, locked in while they clean up and review the evidence. Tony understands. They let him go, and there's a car crash that night, Obies body found. <em>So tragic.</em> The world moves on.</p>
<p>Tony finishes the suits that the other Tony started, and realizes he needs to get the word out somehow he's Iron Man. This world won't have the same introduction Tony's did. No Cap for one, and so Iron Man suddenly shows up to keep a bridge from collapsing, and to rescue some busses, and anything he can help with. People get his name, Tony is a hero. SHIELD gets interested in Tony, in Iron Man. "<em>You're a hero, Stark."</em></p>
<p><br/>
Tony is a <em>wreck</em> .</p>
<p><br/>
He's high and drunk, almost constantly, unable to handle everything after Loki. He wears contacts constantly, because other Tony had brown eyes, not blue. He goes to dark alleys, and drug dens and clubs. There's nothing he won't try, nothing can kill him really with the symbiote inside of him, so what does he care.</p>
<p><br/>
So, as mentioned before, Tony meets 'Toni with an I' in a drug den, both of flying like kites and fucked up and bad pasts. They think they're in love. They get married in Vegas and ruin a hotel room and Pepper is furious, but Tony thinks they're in love. For a bit, they probably are, but then they fight and they break things and they get high and suddenly love each other again. While all this is going on, Tonys darker urges peek out. Bodies get left in alleyways, rapists and drug dealers and trafficers, Tonys got a basic code he follows but - he's killing. A lot. Its not a great mental state.</p>
<p>Probably predictably, Toni gets pregnant.</p>
<p>Tony is terrified. He refuses to let drugs into the tower. He tries not to drink. He's so scared she'll hurt the baby because she told him flat out she's only keeping it as a barganing chip. At some point, other guys start coming by, which Tony doesn't really mind. He's all for sharing love. Alexis is born, and one of the guys, Sebastian, is sticking around. Tony likes him, for all thats worth, because Tony is trying to raise a baby while Toni does whatever the fuck she wants, and having someone there to lean on is nice, even if they're only around each other in the beginning because Toni is there.</p>
<p>Somewhere around this time, Tony meets Phil Coulson. Tony meets <strong>Kingfisher</strong> who makes Tonys blood boil and makes Tony want to be a better man and keeps Tonys harder urges at bay, the ones to kill and cause mayhem and he names Tonys symbiote S.I.D, or Sid for short. ("Smart, Intelligent, Dangerous. It deserves a name.")(Sid preens.) Names Tony <em>Little Monster </em>with a fond tone.Tony falls for a man with dark eyes and dark suits and wicked hands and they're wonderful together.</p>
<p>Maybe not so predictably, Toni gets pregnant again. It's Sebastians this time, she promises, because she and Tony haven't so much as kissed since Lexxi was born and Tony loves this little bundle of baby, he tries to stay sober and clean and he doesn't succeed but fuck it <em>he keeps trying</em>. He stays with Phil a lot, when Toni has the baby, or Sebastian does. Phil keeps him grounded, makes Tony feel like he's not an entire fuck up. He's alcoholic and an addict and he knows that he's not good enough to do this, but he's trying. Phil agrees to help with the baby, if something happens, and it makes Tonys heart beat fast, because he trusts him. <em>He trusts him.</em></p>
<p>The baby is born, and Toni convinces Tony that they can be a real family if they marry Sebastian. Tony's not opposed, necessarily, but Tony is...moving away from Toni, honestly. He loves the kids, but Tony...Tony wants to be with Phil.</p>
<p>It's not quite the same. Tony is with Phil a lot, they're good together, but Phil makes it clear he's not marrying Tony. That's not on the table. Tony understands <strike>(he doesn't)</strike> and he doesn't bring it up. But Tony's half moved into Phils house. He has a cup and a toothbrush and a drawer in the dresser. Phil buys Tonys coffee creamer. Tony stops eating processed stuff so much. But Toni wants them both to marry Sebastian, and <em>be a real family</em> and Tony loves Lexxi and loves Rowan even if Rowan is Sebastians, and so they 'get married'. Phil comes to the service. It's all very nice.</p>
<p><br/>
It's all very much a sham.</p>
<p><br/>
As much as Sebastian and Tony get along, soon enough Toni gets bored, signs away her parental rights in order to waive child support, and Sebastian is gone with Rowan. Tony understands, even if he cries for days, heartbroken and missing his kid. Toni takes off, decides she and Lexxi need to be alone and refuses to let Tony come with them, but takes plenty of his money. Tony is falling apart, and only Phil keeps him together during those dark times, which spread to months, and then years. Nothing but phone calls and facetimes. She has custody, so Tony just does what he can.</p>
<p>Eventually, finally, Tony realizes...something has to change. Tony is living almost full time with Phil. Lexxi is with Toni, traveling, and Toni calls constantly for this or that and says she'll keep Tony from Lexxi if he says no. Tony doesn't say no. Toni shows up a few days before Lexxis fourth birthday, when Tony has been living with Phil full time for over a year, a lab in the basement, and says she'll divorce him if he'll take Lexxi full time.</p>
<p>("Just do it, Stark, we both know you want Coulson." Tony just shrugs, because she's not wrong, and thats pretty much it. There had been no pre-nup for a shotgun Vegas wedding, but Tonys got enough lawyers and friends in dark places that she gets enough money, shes gone, and off with the new Doctor boyfriend.)</p>
<p>Lexxi stays with them for a bit, but after Tony has a bad episode, he gets her enrolled in a good boarding school in England, something warm and friendly and so Alexis Parker Coulson goes to school. Tony visits as much as he can, and tries not to feel like he's abandoning his kid. Phil is always by his side, at important events or just to visit and Tony is so pleased. Its not safe where he is, both because of Iron Man, and because Tony is still recovering from drugs, still isn't better entirely from that, and its safer both mentally and physically for her to be somewhere away, and safe.</p>
<p><br/>
They're on holiday somewhere snowy and warm in a cabin when Tony gets the official finalization. He's divorced. He smiles and lets Phil know he's all Phils now. He doesn't honestly think of marriage - Phil had made it clear, a long time ago, he didn't think Tony was the marrying kind, and Tony can't blame him. (Of course, Phil hadn't meant that, but Tony thinks that, which is the important part.)</p>
<p><br/>
Its not a for a while, a trip to Hawaii, when Tony is in Phils lap for some reason, and Phil calls himself Tonys husband. They destroy a bed, and they have to replace it. It's worth it. (Tony buys that house in Hawaii and their little Cabin and later a place in NOLA that is an escape). There's never an official proposal. They just..call each other husband, and they sign a paper when they get back and Phil gets them rings and they both have a couple of tattoos each and Pepper makes sure to get it filed properly and quietly. Tony is settled down, with a husband and a cat and two dogs and he's...domestic.</p>
<p><br/>
He loves it. He still gets the itch to get high sometimes, or drink, and somewhere along the way they help out a shaman on a mission who helps them transfer Tonys symbiote to his own body, where Sid takes off into the African desert to do jobs for the Shaman there.</p>
<p><br/>
(Never let it be said his life is simple)</p>
<p><br/>
But the story is like this now, even after everything: Tony Stark meets Phil Coulson, Kingfisher meets his Little Monster and they see each other as they truly are, and they <em>love</em> so fiercly that Tony is so astounded. He thinks, now, curled up on a couch in warm sunlight with a dog on his lap, and a tablet in hand, and a husband behind him who's reading, that he wouldn't change a single second, because it led to this.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>ive been meaning to do this for a while now, but i finally got the urge to sit and put it to stone. Lemme know any questions :)</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>